Knowledge (Kitab Al-Ilm)

Musaddad ibn Musarhad told us: Abdullah ibn Dawud told us: I heard Asim ibn Raja ibn Haywah relate, from Dawud ibn Jamil, from Kathir ibn Qays, who said: I was sitting with Abu al-Darda in the mosque of Damascus when a man came to him and said, “Abu al-Darda, I have come to you from the city of the Messenger of Allah for a report that I heard you narrate from the Messenger of Allah. I have come for no other need.” He said: I heard the Messenger of Allah say, “Whoever follows a path seeking knowledge, Allah will guide him along a path to Paradise. The angels lower their wings in approval of the seeker of knowledge. Those in the heavens and on earth, and even the fish in the depths of the water, seek forgiveness for the scholar. The superiority of a scholar over a devoted worshipper is like the superiority of the full moon over all the other stars. The scholars are the heirs of the Prophets. The Prophets left neither dinar nor dirham; they left knowledge. Whoever takes it has taken an abundant share.”

Muhammad ibn al-Wazir al-Dimashqi told us: al-Walid told us: I met Shabib ibn Shaybah, who narrated this to me, from Uthman ibn Abi Sawdah, from Abu al-Darda—meaning from the Prophet—with the same meaning.

Ahmad ibn Yunus told us: Zaidah told us, from al-Amash, from Abu Salih, from Abu Hurairah, who said: The Messenger of Allah said, “Whoever follows a path seeking knowledge, Allah will thereby make a path to Paradise easy for him. Whoever is held back by his deeds will not be advanced by his lineage.”

Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Thabit al-Marwazi told us: Abd al-Razzaq informed us: Mamar informed us, from al-Zuhri: Ibn Abi Namlah al-Ansari told me, from his father, that while he was sitting with the Messenger of Allah, with a Jewish man also present, a funeral passed by. The Jew asked, “Muhammad, does this funeral speak?” The Prophet replied, “Allah knows best.” The Jew said, “It does speak.” The Messenger of Allah said, “Whatever the People of the Book tell you, neither affirm it nor deny it. Instead, say, We believe in Allah and His messengers. If it is false, you will not have affirmed it; and if it is true, you will not have denied it.”

Ahmad ibn Yunus told us: Ibn Abi al-Zinad told us, from his father, from Kharijah—meaning Ibn Zayd ibn Thabit—who said: Zayd ibn Thabit said: The Messenger of Allah instructed me to learn the writing of the Jews for him, and said, “By Allah, I do not trust the Jews with my correspondence.” I learned it, and in only half a month I had mastered it. I would write for him when he wrote, and read to him when letters were written to him.

Musaddad and Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah told us: Yahya told us, from Ubaydullah ibn al-Akhnas, from al-Walid ibn Abdullah ibn Abi Mugith, from Yusuf ibn Mahak, from Abdullah ibn Amr, who said: I used to write down everything I heard from the Messenger of Allah, wanting to memorize it. Quraysh forbade me and said, “Do you write down everything you hear from him? The Messenger of Allah is a human being; he speaks in anger and in contentment.” So I stopped writing. I mentioned this to the Messenger of Allah, and he pointed his finger to his mouth and said, “Write. By the One in whose hand is my soul, nothing comes from it except the truth.”

Nasr ibn Ali informed us: Abu Ahmad informed us: Kathir ibn Zayd told us, from al-Muttalib ibn Abdullah ibn Hantab, who said: Zayd ibn Thabit visited Muawiyah, who asked him about a report and ordered someone to write it down. Zayd said to him, “The Messenger of Allah instructed us not to write anything of his reports.” So Muawiyah had it erased.

Ahmad ibn Yunus told us: Abu Shihab told us, from al-Hadhdha, from Abu al-Mutawakkil al-Naji, from Abu Said al-Khudri, who said: “We used to write nothing except the tashahhud and the Quran.”

Muammal said: al-Walid told us. And al-Abbas ibn al-Walid ibn Mazyad said: My father informed me, from al-Awzai, from Yahya ibn Abi Kathir, who said: Abu Salamah—meaning Ibn Abd al-Rahman—told us: Abu Hurairah told me: When Mecca was conquered, the Prophet stood and delivered his sermon. Abu Hurairah then related the sermon of the Prophet. A man from Yemen called Abu Shah stood and said, “Messenger of Allah, write it down for me.” The Prophet said, “Write it down for Abu Shah.”

Ali ibn Sahl al-Ramli said: al-Walid told us: I asked Abu Amr, “What are they writing?” He said, “The sermon that he heard from the Prophet that day.”

Amr ibn Awn informed us: Khalid informed us. And Musaddad told us: Khalid told us—in meaning—from Bayan ibn Bishr. Musaddad said, “Abu Bishr.” From Wabarah ibn Abd al-Rahman, from Amir ibn Abdullah ibn al-Zubayr, from his father, who said: I asked al-Zubayr, “What prevents you from narrating from the Messenger of Allah as his Companions narrate from him?” He replied, “By Allah, I had a special closeness and standing with him, but I heard him say, Whoever deliberately lies about me, let him take his seat in the Fire.”

Abdullah ibn Muhammad ibn Yahya told us: Yaqoub ibn Ishaq al-Muqri al-Hadrami told us: Suhayl ibn Mihran—the brother of Hazm al-Qutai—told us: Abu Imran told us, from Jundub, who said: The Messenger of Allah said, “Whoever speaks about the Book of Allah based on his own opinion, even if he is correct, has erred.”

Amr ibn Marzuq informed us: Shubah informed us, from Abu Aqil Hashim ibn Bilal, from Sabiq ibn Najiyah, from Abu Salam, from a man who served the Prophet, that whenever the Prophet narrated a report, he would repeat it three times.

Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Tusi told us: Sufyan ibn Uyaynah told us, from al-Zuhri, from Urwah, who said: Abu Hurairah sat beside the room of Aishah, may Allah be pleased with her, while she was praying. He twice called out, “Listen, lady of the room!” When she had finished her prayer, she said, “Do you not find this man and his narration remarkable? The Messenger of Allah would narrate a report in such a way that, if someone wished to count its words, he could do so.”

Sulayman ibn Dawud al-Mahri informed us: Ibn Wahb informed us: Yunus told me, from Ibn Shihab, that Urwah ibn al-Zubayr told him that Aishah, wife of the Prophet, said: “Do you not find Abu Hurairah remarkable? He came and sat beside my room, narrating reports from the Messenger of Allah so that I could hear them while I was praying voluntary prayers. He got up before I had finished my prayer. Had I caught him, I would have answered him: The Messenger of Allah did not rattle off reports one after another as you do.”

Ibrahim ibn Musa al-Razi told us: Isa told us, from al-Awzai, from Abdullah ibn Sad, from al-Sunabihi, from Muawiyah, that the Prophet forbade convoluted questions.

Al-Hasan ibn Ali told us: Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Muqri told us: Said—meaning Ibn Abi Ayyub—told us, from Bakr ibn Amr, from Muslim ibn Yasar Abu Uthman, from Abu Hurairah, who said: The Messenger of Allah said, “Whoever gives a ruling…” [A second chain:] Sulayman ibn Dawud informed us: Ibn Wahb informed us: Yahya ibn Ayyub told me, from Bakr ibn Amr, from Amr ibn Abi Nuaymah, from Abu Uthman al-Tunbudhi—foster brother of Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan—who said: I heard Abu Hurairah say that the Messenger of Allah said, “Whoever is given a ruling without knowledge, its sin is upon the one who gave it.” Sulayman al-Mahri added in his version: “Whoever advises his brother to do something while knowing that sound guidance lies elsewhere has betrayed him.” These are the words of Sulayman.

Musa ibn Ismail told us: Hammad told us: Ali ibn al-Hakam informed us, from Ata, from Abu Hurairah, who said: The Messenger of Allah said, “Whoever is asked about knowledge and conceals it, Allah will bridle him with a bridle of fire on the Day of Resurrection.”

Zuhayr ibn Harb and Uthman ibn Abi Shaybah told us: Jarir told us, from al-Amash, from Abdullah ibn Abdullah, from Said ibn Jubayr, from Ibn Abbas, who said: The Messenger of Allah said, “You hear from me, and it will be heard from you; then it will be heard from those who heard from you.”